Log in/Register

Please log in or register to continue. Registration is free and requires only your email address.

Log in

Register

Emailrequired

PasswordrequiredRemember me?

Please enter your email address and click on the reset-password button. You'll receive an email shortly with a link to create a new password. If you have trouble finding this email, please check your spam folder.

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong and a member of the UNEP Advisory Council on Sustainable Finance, is a former chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and is currently an adjunct professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. His latest book is From Asian to Global Financial Crisis.

With all the survalence possibilities nowadays it should become a practical approach to have privatised and accountable investigators to search for corruption and alikes and they could be paid for the quality of their effords like journalists

One might hypothetically think about China as a slightly sexist region, about the EU as a slightly racist region and the US as a slightly classist region. China might be thought of as a sexist region in view of the missing 80 or something millions of women, problem that is being tackled by laws like the interdiction of prenatal screening for gender, but that is probably being circumvented in many cases through... corruption of the doctors by the parents.

The US are classist region as described in this article by the fact that money has effectively voting power, and the EU, with its debate about hard-working germans vs lazy greeks, superior catalans vs inferior other type of spaniards and the difficulty to distribute refugees to member states except to Germany that doesn't want to be labelled as nazi is a compatible with a slightly racist region.

Corruption might be a buddies-brotherly-male game, as suggested by corruption in the US army that has to some extent more males than females in its hierarchy, and thus might be at least hypothetically weakened by dispatching more women at various levels within the chinese communist party and the chinese administration. Too much women might on the other hand decrease the authority of the state and the party, as the male figure represents authority and the female figure represents reassurance and inclusion, which might lead to racism and classism, both of which are "familiy circle" types of vices.

Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng say President Xi Jinping sees corruption as a metastasis, that needs to be eradicated. As a "keen student" of history he sees how political leaders and officials had been toppled or sacked. And he knows that corruption has the potential to destroy the Communist Party's legitimacy and its longterm survival. Like citizens in a rentier state like Saudi Arabia, ordinary Chinese show also effusive support for their anti-graft drive. Corruption in China dates back thousands of years, a fact of life in the many imperial dynasties – much as it was in the West throughout history. The Confucian wisdom of good governance, merit and anti-corruption, together with a healthy dose of pragmatism, praised as the bases of a successful government, were widely ignored. Corruption is said to be endemic in any one-party state, especially one with a planned economy. Historians say since Mao Zedong and the Communists took power in 1949, their planned economy invoked lust for ill-gotten gains. He ruled with an iron fist, centralising the state authority, waging war on free speech and muzzling criticism. He also placed property, commerce and production in government hands. Life became difficult and citzens couldn't speak out and air their grievances. They had no choice but to turn to corruption for survival, during the food shortages of the Great Leap Forward and the witch hunts of the Cultural Revolution. The authors say before Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms of the 1980s, "corruption in China was relatively petty, as the market’s limited size constrained opportunities for administrative abuse." Following double-digit growth, "inadequate legislation and weak institutional safeguards facilitated increasingly brazen corruption and administrative abuses." Official pay in China is relatively low, with public servants making - on average - an equivalent of less than $500 a month. In the past they oversaw a multitrillion dollar economy that offered immense opportunity to enrich themselves. "Meanwhile, as income and education levels rose, citizens became less tolerant of such abuses, increasingly demanding transparent and lawful delivery of basic public goods, from infrastructure to environmental protection, as well as a fair distribution of income and opportunities." Xi's anti-corruption crusade - unprecedented in scale, scope, and depth - goes down well in China. His new graft "buster" - Zhao Leji - said there would be no tolerance of people who flout laws. Promotions would also need to be rigorously scrutinised, to prevent corrupt officials from abusing power or taking bribes to promote friends and family members. The authors say, a "failure of market, legal, and ideological systems" helps cultivate corruption. David Graeber, an anthropologist, criticises far-right opponents to big government, who erroneously believe that reducing "the role of state" would allow market forces to take over. But instead of cutting red tape and boosting efficiency, it paradoxically "fuels cumbersome bureaucratic expansion" - more regulations, more paperwork and more employees, with no pay rise. A thriving economy depends on the goodwill and "guidance of a competent, honest, and fair state, with effective protections against abuses and graft." Authorities have to be able to respect property rights and observe the rule of law, prosecuting those "who offer bribes and the officials who accept them." The author suggests, "China can take inspiration from the Western common law system." Beijing should also learn from Singapore, whose perceived levels of corruption ranked 7th out of 176 countries surveyed by Transparency International in 2016. The city-state had in the past reduced "the incentive for graft, by raising the pay of public servants at all levels." If China wants to win investors' confidence, it requires "maintaining accountability and preventing vested interests from capturing institutions – a process that involves entrenching morality within vulnerable bureaucracies," which is "no easy feat." Even if Xi's anti-corruption agenda seems to be "on the right track," the world is watching whether it is also a pretext for purging political opponents.

China struggles with over-reliance on debt. Xi's plan is to tackle this by reining in corruption. But China lacks the indispensable liberal institutions that make markets work, while it possesses a plethora of the kinds of institutions that inhibit effective market operation. It is a reminder that the market is not an economic, but a political an institutional phenomenon.

How does a dictatorship, particularly one like China without even the discipline of rigorous protection of private property or a strong judiciary necessitated by a market economy, control proliferating corruption in its own functionaries?

Xi has launched campaigns to tighten discipline, and dozens of death sentences have been handed out for bribe taking or abuse of authority, but the overwhelming majority of official misdeeds have gone unpunished. How could it be otherwise? In the fulfillment of tasks, rule violations are not only condoned but also encouraged, and determining which violations are permissible, to what degree, and in which circumstances, is arbitrary.

If every transgression were punished, almost all of Chinese officialdom would have to be executed or jailed. And this is not a new phenomenon; it has also characterized all government under the Chinese empires. It is, in other words, cultural.

Corruption is an historic "problem" in China. First, let's be clear about something: what the Chinese call corruption in the US would be legal (see https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/menendez-mcdonnell-supreme-court/543354/). We know that corruption is not a "real" problem, but merely a political one. And in the case of China, it is a political tool. Another comment said that corruption is an excuse to eliminate political dissent. But it is also a way to legitimize the government. The role of self-criticism in the CPC is very clear, and it is a maoist tradition that has it's roots in Imperial China. So, even though corruption has a negligible economic impact, it has two clear roles: dealing with opposition and legitimizing the status quo.

This has nothing to do with regulation. It is simply the establishment attacking anything that threatens it. Corruption was not a threat when it was at a petty level, when it escalated to significant revenues then the establishment acted.This is a characteristic of the establishment. Regulation is the act of governance and regulation fails when the establishment becomes too enmeshed with commerce, acts as a business partner with commerce, which is what lead to the Gt Recession. The compromised position of being involved in de facto partnership is what has restricted the establishment in resolving the Gt Recession fallout

Steeve Hurst: I agree with you here. It is delusional to believe that corruption could be completely eliminated in any society or functioning state machinery including punishment as deterrent.It is an incurable disease that existed from ancient times. It originates from complex factors.

No one is immune, rich, powerful or poor.

Great philontropist Elihu Yale, Gov. Of East India company , a slave trader etc Yale amassed money through corrupt methods and donated a big chunk of his wealth to a university that later was named as Yale univ. General Arthur Wellesley future Great military leader of Britain later to become Duke of Wellington, demanded and got 5000 pounds as war booty after victory in Battle of Sreerangapatam in 1799 . Martin Heidegger touted as the greatest Western philosopher in 20th century was an ardent Nazi who squealed on fellow univ. members.

Vast numbers of MPs and cabinet members in current and past Indian Govts. Have been sickeningly corrupt. There are plenty more ie. judges, lawyers, police, bureocrats etc.

Unless people and societies display a strong sense ethical and moral and cultural values and practice them corruption will have the upper hand.

I will fall on my knees and kow-tow to " incoming Messiahs /gentle giants of China" if they ever invent a method to eliminate corruption so that it could be applied to global problems.